European CFO Survey Q1 2017

Recovery continues

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Deloitte European CFO Survey, a major initiative of the Deloitte EMEA CFO Programme. This edition presents the opinions from almost 1,600 CFOs across 19 European countries, our largest cohort to date, giving access to a wide analysis of national and European market and business sentiment.

As well as covering topics such as risk appetite, financial prospects and strategic priorities, we also ask CFOs about their opinions on the future of the European Union, specifically the likelihood they attribute to further member states voting to leave the union in the next five years, as well as what the EU needs to do in order to guarantee the bloc’s success.

Explore Content

An optimistic outlook

Political shifts and external risks that have dominated headlines for the past two years led to ongoing uncertainty for CFOs. The Q1 2017 survey results shift, with corporates across Europe now more optimistic about their business prospects.

The data presented in this report shows encouraging evidence of their heightened optimism: a net balance of +25% of Europe’s CFOs reported higher degrees of optimism when asked about the financial prospects for their firms compared to three/six months ago. This rise in optimism in 17 of the 19 countries polled has come at a time when CFOs’ perceptions of external uncertainty are falling; although a majority still believe uncertainty to be above normal, this is the third consecutive quarter where perceptions of uncertainty have fallen.

Crucially, the improved outlook for Europe is also being reflected in CFOs adopting a much more positive attitude towards strengthening their company’s performance. Encouraging signs include increased risk appetite, a shift towards capital expenditure, an upwards swing in hiring and a positive outlook for revenues and margins.

A post-Brexit world: What’s next for the EU?

Following the UK’s vote to leave the EU, we asked CFOs what likelihood they attributed to further member states voting to leave or leaving the union in the next five years. CFOs attributed an average probability of 33% for further exits, with the vast majority of CFOs surveyed viewing a further break-up of the union as unlikely, but not impossible.

However, for the EU to succeed, 81% of CFOs believe that some form of increased integration in Europe is needed, with 42% preferring increased integration among certain member states (the ‘multi-speed’ option) and 39% supporting increased integration for the union overall. Only 7% believe the status quo will prove sustainable. Interestingly, there were some clear splits in opinion evident at a country level.

Analyse the data

DeloitteResearchEMEA.com allows you to analyse data across countries, clusters, and sub-regions, and compare each country’s response to our survey questions.

About the European CFO Survey

The European CFO Survey is part of a global cohort of surveys benchmarking the current and future intentions and opinions of European Chief Financial Officers. The findings discussed in this report are representative of the options of 1,580 CFOs based in 19 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. CFOs were all contacted between February and March 2017. Visit www.DeloitteResearchEMEA.com for detailed analysis and comparisons between Q1 2017, Q3 2016, Q1 2016, Q3 2015 and Q1 2015 data.

In Romania, the services are provided or supported by Deloitte Audit SRL, Deloitte Tax SRL, Deloitte Consultanta SRL, Deloitte Fiscal Representative SRL, Deloitte Tehnologie SRL, Deloitte GES Support Services SRL and Deloitte Shared Services SRL. Deloitte is one of the leading professional services organizations in Romania providing, in cooperation with Reff & Associates, services in audit, tax, legal, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, business processes and technology services and other related services with more than 1100 professionals. Please see www.deloitte.com/ro/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.